Cadillac has become the most name-dropped brand in songs on the US Billboard's Top 20 chart in January 2004, overtaking Mercedes, long hip-hop's shibboleth of bling-bling materialism.
The move comes as parent company General Motors (GM) staged the "All-Star Showdown," a charity event at which prominent athletes and celebrities, mostly black - including Shaquille O'Neal, Busta Rhymes, Public Enemy and Martin Lawrence - competed for the title "King of Bling" with their pimped-out Cadillac Escalades and Hummer H2s.
Five years ago, Cadillac was about as hip as wingtips. Today the brand is on the bleeding edge of cool, a fixture in urban music and cherished ride of some of Dub Nation's biggest superstars. How did all this happen?
"It's been a totally great surprise," Cadillac general manager Mark LaNeve told Automotive News. "In terms of generating anything that is targeted to that group, no, we can't take credit for it. We're too busy to know what's cool."
Cadillac now finds itself suspended between two demographic groups which - let's keep it real, yo - don't have much to do with each other. For all the talk about hip-hop going mainstream, and crossover hits such as OutKast's "Hey Ya!" ("Don't want to meet your daddy/Just want you in my Caddy") you are not going to find white middle-aged soccer moms swapping out their Sting CDs so they can rattle windows with Youngbloodz's "Cadillac Pimpin."
But a brand once desperate for respect and attention is suddenly outgunning Gucci, Courvoisier, Bentley and Mercedes in brand awareness among US consumers 18 to 24 years old. - Los Angeles Times